Barbour Tartan Guide

Barbour is renowned for their iconic Tartan linings, it often adds to the authenticity of a real Barbour classic. For me, Barbour’s Tartan represents continuing pride in their roots, and celebrates their Scottish heritage. It’s brilliant that Barbour have not lost touch with this inherited legacy, and continue to include snippets of their humble beginnings throughout their range.

“The design of the Barbour Tartans derived from the district of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, where the family name, Barbour, originated in the 13th century.”– John Barbour

Barbour have created a short film explaining the origins of their iconic Tartan patterns. In this compelling video, Helen Barbour explains how on a weekend away in Edinburgh, she tapped her family details into a large database to find out her family Tartan. To her surprise, she couldn’t find the Barbour family or their family Tartan.

Helen’s mother, Dame Margaret Barbour, believed they were using the Dress Gordon because they had a family connection with it; but after speaking to Douglas Kinloch Anderson, who owns Kinloch Anderson the leading renowned experts in Scottish Tartan, it was confirmed that there wasn’t actually a Tartan associated with the Barbour family at all. Douglas explained how they could create a Tartan to be connected to the Barbour family name, but it had to be done in the correct way. It was paramount that the Tartan design had to have some level of proper origin and some foothold in Scotland. So Helen began working with Kinloch Anderson to develop their own tartan, in order to express their Scottish identity.

“It’s wonderful to see how Barbour have celebrated their family origins in Scotland, through the development of the Barbour collection of Tartans.”– Kinloch Anderson

The Tartan they created derived from the district of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, where the family name, Barbour, originated in the 13th century. Since, more and more colours of their Tartan have been required, but they all descend from the same “sett”, which means they share both the same pattern and weight of lines. They’ve been specially designed with the experts at Kinloch Anderson of Edinburgh, all the while with historic prominence as the forefront priority…

Barbour Muted Tartan

Barbour Modern Tartan

Barbour Dress Tartan

Barbour Classic Tartan

Barbour Cardinal Tartan

Barbour Ancient Tartan

“Tartan is a gift that Scotland has given to the world”– Kinloch Anderson

JohnJ

John Jones in Managing Partner at Philip Morris & Son. As a keen driven game shooter he takes a hands on role in selection and development of the Philip Morris & Son Country Clothing range. With a combination of technical, industry and user knowledge this puts John in a unique position to share his knowledge of the best and worst products available.